20/01/2006

The 29th Göteborg Film Festival, the largest film festival in Scandinavia is ready to welcome from January 27 to February 6, 450 short, feature and documentary films from 60 countries showcased in 18 different sections.

This year’s opening film will be Sturla Gunnarson’s Viking drama Beowulf & Grendel, an Iceland/Canadian/UK co-production with Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård in one of the leading parts. The film is one of the eight feature films competing for the prestigious Film Dragon Award and €1,400 cash prize handed out to the Festival’s Best Nordic Film. It will compete against Suzanne Osten’s Swedish film Welcome To Verona, Dadur Kári’s Danish/Icelandic co-production Dark Horse [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Om Gud Vill (If God is Willing), the directorial debut of Swedish music videos specialist Amir Chamdin, Matti? Hell For Heroes, the portrait of a sports legend by Finnish director Aleksi Mäkelä, Izzat by Norwegian upcoming talent Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen, We Shall Overcome [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the Danish Niels Arden Oplev and the Icelandic Baltasar Kormákur’s first English language film A Little Trip To Heaven.

Other highlights of the festival include a Special Focus on UK documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto, and master-classes with the Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer ( Factotum [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and the Danish Per Fly ( Manslaughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Nicolas Winding Refn.
Parallel to the festival, the Nordic Event or Nordic film market will give international film professionals (festival programmers and film buyers) the opportunity to meet with their Nordic counterparts and local sales agents. The event supported by Scandinavian Films, the Nordic Film & TV Fund, the Swedish Film Institute and the Nordic Cultural Fund will take place from February 2-5, 2006.